CCAJC Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Hi there - can someone help me with a simple (!) problem. We have a new Motor home - v proud and happy - but got a slight and rather irritating problem. The fridge freezer works when we are driving (12v) and when we are hooked up (240) but will not click on to gas. The cooker and heater (room / water) work when I turn the gas on, but the fridge clicks for ever - even if I have selected auto or specifically gas. I have also checked the isolation switch to make sure the supply is going through. What else should I be trying? Cheers Chrissie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Hi CCAJC, Has it worked on gas at all since you got it? If not, it might need some adjustment doing, the gas pipe could be kinked, blocked etc, thus preventing the gas getting through. Assuming you've got enough gas in the bottle for the fridge (some are a bit fussy if it's getting a bit low), then it could be the control knob and the valve behind it. We had this on our Rapido's fridge, twice believe it or not, and had to have the part replaced both times under warranty, the chap who did it though it might've been one of the faulty batch that was known to be kicking around which eventually fails. In any event, as this is a new van, you usually need to get the dealer to sort it out so that you don't invalidate your warranty, however, depending on the terms of the warranty and/or the distance involved between you and your dealer, you may be able to get a local technician to sort it out. If it's a Dometic fridge/freezer, then you should be able to find an authorised Dometic repairer in your vicinity, and they will usually come out to your home and sort it out for you and then they just submit it as a warranty repair so you don't even have to lay the money out. I had this with my previous vans and there was never a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCAJC Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Thanks for the response - and to answer your points we haven't had it working on gas ever but having said that last weekend was the first go on gas. It is a new bottle - first thing I checked and changed. Due to the distance between us and the dealer - its a bit difficult to pop in to get it checked. However we are having a conversation tomorrow with the Corgi guys to check the simple obvious bits - including kinks etc. After that I will be asking them to arrange a local resolution - the dealer is feeling a little pressured after we collected a brand new van on 1st March and got it recovered after 50 miles :'( - not a "Motor home" problem but a mechanical issue - the dealers could do enough and are still trying hard :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Are you pressing in the control knob (temperature setting) and holding it until the flame lights and continuing to hold until the cutout thermocouple warmes up ( about 15 to 30 second )? very shortly after flame lights the clicking should stop, but you need to hold for longer. If when you let go it starts clicking press the knob again to relight. I am assuming your fridge is of this type of operation Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Start with the basics. There should be a shut off valve for each of the gas appliances in your motorhome. They usually have a red knob and are usually all grouped together somewhere. Make sure that the one for the fridge is turned on. Harvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCAJC Posted May 5, 2008 Author Share Posted May 5, 2008 Okay - not sure what happened but as is always the case the thing is now working !!!! I did nothing apart from threatening make the dealer pay for me to have a local company look at it. we then went away and first time we tried on Saturday it turned on and worked perfectly !!m So happy with my COLD G&T with ICE for the weekend. Thanks to everyone who read the posts and took the time to answer with suggestions (lol) May all my problems be this difficult to resolve :-D Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 Oh by the way Chris, I popped round your place the other day when you were out and took a look at your fridge and fixed it for you. I'll send the bill to you later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 Actually, may just have been condensation on the electrodes for the spark and it was failing to ignite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 I don't want to rain on your parade but .... A little background first ... we have a Dometic 2 door fridge/freezer, fridge at bottom, freezer at top. Around the separate freezer compartment door there is a heating element built into the frame, this is there so that if the freezer goes daft and freezes itself shut (which apparently they can do), you can press a little button on the front and it will defrost the surround so you can get in to your bits and pieces. Anyway, we had a problem recently when our fridge refused to work at all - we had gone for a weekend away in February (the really really cold freezing ... did a say COLD one - nuts, I know), it was working perfectly before we left and when we got there, then the following day the fridge/freezer were dead! No power on the controls for them at all, but the button for the 'surround defrost' DID have power! 8-) With the weather being so cold (minus 8 or something overnight ... felt like minus 30 when stood outside :-() we didn't have a problem keeping the contents for the fridge cold. The following morning though, for whatever reason, it decided to work again, it was still okay when we left for home after tea. As the site owner had said that they had been having problems with the electric supply, we thought it must be something to do with this so didn't worry. Then, we got the van ready for a trip to the NEC show on the Friday morning and put the hook-up and fridge on it was working fine, but by lunchtime the ruddy fridge had stopped working again, no electric at all to the fridge/freezer controls BUT, and this was the very confusing thing, the surround defrost was working again ... now we don't have a problem with our electric hook-up at home so we knew something wasn't right. We just took the bare essentials to the NEC (no way was I going to miss out on another show - we had to miss the October one!) and believe it or not when we got on the outskirts and camped up for the night the blooming thing worked again!!! By this point we thought the possibilities were that there was a loose cable/socket/bad connection or something in the inner workings of the fridge that moving/rocking the van reconnected thus making it work, or that the main board was faulty. To get to the point, we had a couple of visits from a Dometic technician, the first time (when of course, the fridge worked perfectly didn't it *-) ) he couldn't find a fault but did find a slightly loose connector and pushed it back on securely. Unfortunately this didn't solve the problem, he then made another visit and has now replaced the main circuit board, with the intention of taking the old one back to his base to do some checks on it, unfortunately whilst removing the connectors from the old board (which were by now very tight seeing as he'd pushed them on the last time :D), he slipped with his screwdriver which he was having to use to push them off and caused a short on the board and blew it! :$ So, we will never know exactly what the problem was but since he's fitted the new board it's behaved itself, albeit that we've only had the new board in for a couple of weeks but we are hoping that it was the cause, if not, then we haven't a clue as there's not much else to go wrong! I just wonder if it is something similar in your fridge? I'd suggest that you keep going out and checking that it is working okay just to be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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